FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT LIBRARY BRANCH - PAGE 3

Suggestions about what to do with the former Shull Junior High School building on Easton's South Side come easy. Unfortunately, for both the Easton Area School District and the city of Easton, the answers don't. At the invitation of the South Side Civic Association, a group of about 50 residents and officials gathered in the school last night for a panel discussion on the future of the site. The building, at Berwick and Seitz streets, hasn't been home to a conventional school setting for years.

Palmer Township supervisors yesterday accepted the second round of bids on the proposed new township branch of the Easton Area Public Library and granted final approval for a $3-million development off Nulton Avenue. According to Scott Pidcock, of library architect G. Edwin Pidcock Co. of Allentown, the bids opened yesterday were much more in line with the estimated project costs. The total base bids on the four major contract bids received yesterday totaled $747,053, compared to over $1 million when bids were first received last November.

Some of the week's top news stories: ALLENTOWN, LEHIGH COUNTY Officer fired: Accused of complicity in two bank robberies, leaving a traffic accident and directing an obscenity-laced tantrum at other officers while off duty, Jack DaSilva was fired from the Allentown Police Department Wednesday. City Council voted unanimously to terminate DaSilva, a rookie officer from Bethlehem who had been employed on a probationary basis, for conduct unbecoming a police officer. Bush visits Valley: George W. Bush, surrounded Tuesday by two dozen residents of an Allentown senior citizens high-rise, proposed a $158 billion Medicare makeover that local elder advocates worry is too complicated for many and too undependable for most.

The steel girders have been erected, crossing over one another to give the appearance of a huge jungle gym. Since the building won't be under roof until the winter, it takes a considerable amount of imagination to picture now what the new Center County library branch will look like when it is completed. But Bucks County officials are, nevertheless, so proud of the progress being made on the new library that they held a public tour yesterday to show off the Doylestown site. The library is being constructed on the site of the old Bucks County Prison.

The number of concerned citizens who routinely attend the vast majority of Bethlehem City Council meetings has diminished dramatically over the past few years since their comments during "courtesy of the floor" have become exercises in frustration; council members generally answer the comments with a polite "thank you," with rarely a meaningful response to the issue raised. This indifference was demonstrated at two recent City Council meetings concerning the disposition of $30,000 from the Community Development Block Grant, with possible recipients being the South Side branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library, financial assistance for city employees' home purchases, and the police department's drug enforcement.

The movement to name the new library branch in Central Bucks after Pearl S. Buck is picking up support throughout the county. Here are some recent develop- ments: - The three commis- sioners have been receiving letters and telephone calls from citizens who support the idea of naming the new library after the late Nobel Prize-winning author who made her home for years in Hilltown Township. - Commissioner Lucille M. Trench has asked Doylestown officials to request a referendum on the issue for the spring 1988 ballot.

Except for little odds and ends, construction is completed at the Samuel Pierce branch of the Bucks County Library in Perkasie's Menlo Park. "Basically the library building is finished," said R. Roy Hager, president of the Pierce Library Association, the organization formed last year to construct the facility. Hager said the library plans an early- to mid-October moving day with the opening near the end of that month. In the next month and a half, Hager said, various tasks will be done, including installation of shelves and equipment.

To the Editor: As an avid user of the resources of the Allentown Public Library, I have never begrudged the portion of my per capita tax that is for support of the library -- that is until now. It was very annoying to find out (in a time of urgent need for my young child) that East Branch patrons are supposed to use Pathmark's restrooms because the library doesn't have restrooms for public use. The location of this branch (I believe) was chosen partly with its high accessibility to the majority of the East Side in mind.

The Pierce Branch of the Bucks County Free Library, Sixth Street, Perkasie, will be closed several days beginning this morning for alterations to provide access to the handicapped. A concrete ramp will be built at the main entrance as part of the project. With good weather, the work is expected to be completed by Friday.

The Northampton Area Public Library and Bath Branch issued 865 new adult cards and 336 new juvenile cards during the 1985-86 year, bringing the number of registrants to 11,371, up from 11,019 the previous year. There were 84,161 items in circulation during the year, up from 83,973. Included in the circulation figures are adult fiction, 15,418; adult non- fiction, 14,473; juvenile fiction, 23,346; juvenile nonfiction, 6,268; paperbacks, 16,746; periodicals, 5,668; pamphlets, 853; filmstrips, 28; sound recordings, 1,265, and puzzles, 13. The library received $65,000 from the Northampton School District, up from $54,970; $3,100 from the municipalities in the district, up from $850; $5,586 from the Borough of Bath in in-kind contributions, down from $6,216; $643 from work programs such as Green Thumb and Manpower, down from $3,859, and $23,653 from the state, up from $23,558.